Direct Effect in EU Law

The book revisits the past, present, and future of direct effect in European Union law. It offers a fully innovative understanding of this revolutionary doctrine from historical, theoretical, doctrinal, and practical perspectives. The volume explains that direct effect has evolved into a broader legal category than it was at the outset of the European legal integration process in the 1960s. Such evolution should be acknowledged, articulated, and systematized by the CJEU. Indeed, despite direct effect being the backbone of EU (institutional, constitutional, procedural, and substantive) law, this principle lacks a clear legal framing by the CJEU as to its core components and consequences. This form of self-restraint is as troublesome as judicial activism since courts should always endeavour to effectively understand and legally frame fundamental principles from which other principles, rules of reason, and legal taxonomies are derived. Moreover, argumentative minimalism runs the risk of undermining the spirit and purpose of the process of European integration, especially in a time like ours, when new forms of populism, sovereigntism, and anti-Europeanism are on the rise. In this connection, the aim of the book is to reconstruct direct effect, also beyond Van Gend & Loos and the doctrine originating from it, and ultimately submit solutions for its principled comprehension and enforcement.